Thread: Joinery Advice Please!

Good lesson learnt here about planning your work, every aspect of it. Make a list of each process, tick it off as you go along. I do this, mostly in my head, in a book for bigger things, helps with ordering materials as well.

40 x 60 in hardwood would probably be ok, you'll need to make the loose tenons about 12-15mm thick. I wouldn’t use softwood on the two cross members that the legs attach to but the others would be fine.

Another way to add strength and counteract torsional stresses would be to add glue blocks to the frame above the cross members, you would just need to make sure that the grain direction of the blocks run with the grain of the frame.

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

40 x 60 in hardwood would probably be ok, you'll need to make the loose tenons about 12-15mm thick.....

I think that it is too late for that, CT. Toby has already fastened and glued the mitres on the rails. [See first post] He's looking for a way to recover from this original oversight.

Haven't we all been there? "Oh, sh*t. Why did I get here? How do I get out?"

The issue with the tongue and groove method is depending on how thick the support members are you run the risk of it breaking out the opposite side when load is applied.

There are a few ways you could do this depending on how much of a glutton for punishment you are.

Easiest is as others have mentioned using pocket holes, but oblivious you'll need to test and set your depths correctly
Next level difficulty is using dowels but going through the front, you can cover up the dowels with plugs but you'll need a plug cutter matching your dowel
Hardest and is probably my chosen method is either separate the mitres and start over, or if thats not an option, build/add a subframe and attach the members to the subframe. This will be by far the strongest but may be overkill for your application.

Originally Posted by TobyH

Hi Johh,

Thanks for the advice. Do you think I'd need to use specialised pocket hole screws for this - such as Kreg? Or can I use a generic self drilling pan-head screw? From my reading on this forum, there is a fair bit of debate on this subject.

Thanks

While pocket hole joinery is probably not appropriate for this project, you should be aware for any future use that the answer to this question is:

1. Yes, you should use specialist screws, not just the screws you would buy from Bunnings or other general hardware suppliers.
2. The specialist screws come in varieties for hardwood and softwood. You need to use the appropriate screw. The difference is in the thread pitch. The fine pitch on hardwood screws will help avoid the wood splitting.

Hi All,
Finally got around to finishing this bench. Wanted to thank everyone for the advice. I really helps to bounce some ideas off people and come up with a good solution. I ended up going with the floating tenon solution and it came up great. I know there was some strong advice to pull it apart and start again, but in the end I didn't see much advantage in pulling it apart just to do a standard mortice and tenon. I think the floating tennon is plenty strong enough for this application.

Thanks again for all the advice.

I have attached some pics of the progress for anyone interested.

Looks nice, Toby, and a truly innovative solution.

Not really sure of the correct nomenclature for your final joint.

• The ends of the cross rails are standard bridle joints,
• You cut a standard mortise into the side rails and inserted a loose or floating tenon,
• Then you slid the bridle joint over the loose tenon.

Perhaps a loose tenon bridle joint ?

I haven't seen this incarnation before, but someone may come along with more information.

Seems to have worked; well done!

One question, Toby; how did you finally attach the legs to the table? (It's about that torque issue!)